Lovelock stacks up at world championships

Ben Lovelock shows his sport stacking talent. Photo by Craig Baxter.
Ben Lovelock shows his sport stacking talent. Photo by Craig Baxter.
John McGlashan pupil Ben Lovelock flew to Orlando last month with the New Zealand Black Stacks to attend the world sport stacking championships.

After 20 hours of travel, the team finally arrived at the seven-bedroom mansion where it would spend the next 12 days. One of the highlights before competition started was a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre.

Finally, the competitors were split into age divisions to do preliminary rounds. The world championships include the individual events (3-3-3, 3-6-3 and the cycle), with the top 10 for each age division reaching the finals, and also doubles and a 3-6-3 relay.

Ben was fortunate enough to make all of the individual finals for his age. The last event was the most anticipated, the International Challenge.

All of the international teams picked their best four stackers to compete in a head-to-head cycle relay to become the best country in the world. New Zealand did exceptionally well, making it through all the preliminary races and into the semifinals.

In Ben's age-group, he placed 10th for 3-3-3, fifth for 3-6-3 and fourth for the cycle. The rest of the team did well, picking up nearly 20 medals and a trophy. New Zealand was unlucky not to beat Germany in the International Challenge but still claimed the bronze medal by winning the playoff against Taiwan.

 

St Hilda's futsal

Four St Hilda's teams competed in the recent Footballsouth secondary schools tournament.

In the year 9-10 division, the St Hilda's year 10 team beat the year 9 team 3-1 in the final. In the year 11-13 division, St Hilda's Blue beat Logan Park 5-0.

The junior teams played in the term one competition and the constant games have strengthened the teams. The St Hilda's White team was the winner in the year 9-10 section.

Winter sport has already started for some teams. The A hockey team is playing in the premier women's competition on Saturdays, and the senior A and B netball teams have played one round in the senior competition.

The St Hilda's cross-country was held on the last Thursday of term one. The course through Ross Creek is always a challenge. Winners of each age-group were: year 7-8, Olivia O'Neill (record time); year 9, Nicole Ruske; year 10, Anna Lindsay; year 11, Aleisha Ruske; year 12, Meg McKay; year 13, Claudia Dyet.

 

Otago Girls' High School

Otago Girls' was the top Dunedin girls team in the orienteering school series. The award is the result of the cumulative performances over six events by Shirley Zhang, Bokyong Mun, Kelly Young, Melanie Paddon, Frances Baker, Katie Knopp, Millie Bray, Shaham Cameron and Ashleigh Fox.

During the recent holidays, Erin Milner (year 12) was a member of the Otago-Southland horse trials team that competed at the national championships in Hastings. She was second in the under-16 section and a member of the team that also finished second.

OGHS had four teams (junior and senior A and B teams) competing in the futsal tournament at the Edgar Centre. The senior A team placed third in its group. Sam Watson, Tabitha Seaton (senior A), Brittany Fisher (senior B), Annabel Marshall (junior A), Molly Hickey and Tiahli Curran-Hogg (junior B) were selected as most valuable players.

The OGHS sports council held its most recent meeting towards the end of term. Parents, pupils and staff were all well represented and there was a good discussion on the direction and focus for the council.

The council plans to begin working with selected codes to facilitate the objective of high achievement. The council is interested in how it can

John McGlashan College lock Simon Clarke wins good ball in a lineout during the Highlanders First...
John McGlashan College lock Simon Clarke wins good ball in a lineout during the Highlanders First XV rugby game against King's High School in Dunedin on Saturday. He is supported by Cam Burrow (No 3) and Matthan Schaaf, while Ed Davies waits in support. The King's player is Richie Buchanan. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
generate income to support athletes.

 

King's achievements

Two King's pupils participated in the national orienteering championships in Christchurch over Easter. Malachi Buschl (year 9) was fourth in the sprint and third in the long-distance race, and was a member of a relay team that placed third.

Daniel Wilden, who has stepped up to senior level this year, was 10th in the sprint, seventh in the middle distance and 11th in the long distance.

King's pupils (past and present) and coach Dan Koni received accolades at the recent Otago touch awards. From under-13 grades through to Otago 40s in male and mixed grades, King's was represented in five grades. Of the 10 awards handed out, seven were for current or former King's boys.

King's sent a team of 18 to Invercargill on April 5-7 for the South Island schools athletics. The star of the weekend was Felix McDonald, in the under-15 grade. He won the long jump and was second in both the 80m hurdles and the 400m.

Other top performers included Alex Thomson (second under-19 hammer), David White (second AWD ID 100m and 400m, third 200m), Rommar Miranda (third under-15 shot put), Ben Kiore (third under-15 200m) and Krizevac Tuitea (third under-19 shot put).

Otago Anniversary Weekend and the Easter break proved to be very successful for King's High School's young sailors. In the Sunburst schools competition, King's entered four teams, which competed against 22 others from throughout the South Island. King's ranked third overall in this competition.

The sailors included Dylan Edwards and James Brown (second, non-spinnaker gold division, and sixth overall), Cameron and Will Satterwaite (second handicap, eighth spinnaker division), Bryn Fisher and Philip Anderson (third handicap, sixth spinnaker division), and Alessandro Pezzuto and Callum Williams (seventh spinnaker division, 11th overall).

Dylan and Sam also competed in the national Optimist competition in Timaru over Easter. There were 120 competitors from Australia and New Zealand. Dylan was 38th in the gold fleet, while Sam was 57th in the silver fleet.

 

Dunstan event

Five teams from Dunstan High School put in good performances at the New Zealand secondary schools adventure racing championships in Bannockburn and Cromwell in April The race featured cycling, trekking, kayaking, abseiling and orienteering sections.

Dunstan's senior girls team of Deahna Shearer, Robin Pieper, Emily McGimpsey and Bella Grant won their section in 8hr 44min, and the intermediate team was third in the girls section in 10hr 39min.

The senior boys narrowly missed a win when a mechanical failure on one of their bikes lost them about half an hour. They finished in 7hr 45min, just 21min after the leaders.

The junior boys and other girls teams also put in solid efforts, finishing in 10hr 2min and 11hr 53min respectively.

A squad of 22 Dunstan High School kayakers attended the national secondary schools championships at Kawerau in late March. Medallists included Deahna Shearer (first under-18 K1, third C1), Kensa Randle (first under-16 K1 and C1), Kate Pascoe (second under-16 K1 and C1), Mia Kelly (second under-14 C1, third K1), Otis Rayner (first under-14 C1) and Kit Pascoe (second under-14 C1).

In C2 boats, top performers were Deahna Shearer and Robin Pieper (first under-18), Kensa Randle and Kate Pascoe (first under-16), Mia Kelly and Sunaina Born (first under-14), Shannon and Paloma Kelly (second under-16), Max Rayner and Emily McGimpsey (third under-18), Kit Pascoe and Jack McCulloch (second under-14) and Sam McCulloch and Jeremy Norbury (third under-16).

Ten team medals were also won, with first placings in K1 under-18 women, under-14 C1 men and under-18 C1 women. In the down-river races, eight medals were won, with two firsts for Kensa Randle.

Dunstan High School also won the freestyle schools trophy along with the best overall girls team trophy.

 


These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association (OSSSA) which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Trust.

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